...for serious pike and predator anglers!
Pike Senses
UK predator anglers tend to dismiss many new products and ideas without ever having tried them. How anyone can dismiss something without ever having tried it, is totally beyond me!
American predator anglers are great ones for experimenting and trying out new products and ideas. A new improved rattle, or a new formula fish attractant scent, has the potential of putting an American ‘Pro Angler’ in the big prize money.
Being a ‘Professional Fishing Guide’, I never dismiss anything - if I think a new product, or new idea/technique has fish catchin’ potential, and will help me and my clients to catch more fish, I will give it a damn good testing.
For many years I have been experimenting with sound (vibration) and visual attractors - i.e. for stimulating and triggering predators to attack. The key to any vibratory or visual attractors success, is being able to realistically mimic things that predatory fish see or hear/feel on a day to day basis.
Visual and vibratory examples - which predatory fish may encounter on a day to day basis are
prey fish, frogs, ducks (and the like), rodents, snakes - and so on...
When hungry, pike and chub (pike especially) respond savagely to vibration waves received. Vibration waves given off by baby ducks, as they rustle through reed to get their first glimpse of open water, rarely ever fail to get a response from a hungry pike - or a big chub. Top-water lure fishing near new hatchlings can be very rewarding (!)
As I have explained in my ‘Top-Water Action’ article, pike will even launch themselves at vibration waves emitted by USOs - i.e. 'unidentified splashing objects' - for example, hands being washed or toes being dipped!
With regard to scent, all predatory fish have a good sense of smell. I rarely ever bait fish without applying some form of smell/taste enhancer to my bait.
To give you some idea of how predatory fish use their senses to hunt, study the following illustration.